[Portrait] A new head of mission for EUBAM Rafah

(BRUSSELS2) The Political and Security Committee (PSC) approved this Tuesday (July 9) the appointment of a new head of mission for the border surveillance mission (EUBAM) in Rafah (crossing point between Egypt, Israel and Gaza).

Gerhard Schlaudraff, advisor to the special representative for the Middle East peace process, replaces Carabinieri colonel Francesco Bruzzese Del Pozzo, who took office at the beginning of October 2012 (read: A Carabinieri takes the lead from Eubam Rafah). A graduate of the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Gerhard entered the German diplomatic career in the early 1990s. He was notably stationed in Jakarta (Indonesia) and was advisor to the division for the training of the Afghan police at the German Foreign Ministry.

A waiting mission

Its mission responds to a mandate of waiting as the High Representative explained to the COPS ambassadors: “ redeploy European observers to the Rafah crossing point as soon as security and political conditions allow » and, in the meantime, “ preserve the mission as an important manifestation of the European Union's commitment to full implementation of the 2005 agreements on (freedom) of movement and access ". Since the 2006 elections, the coming to power of Hamas, and its takeover of Gaza in June 2007, the crossing point has been closed or its activity reduced and the European observers withdrew at the end of 2007.